University of Tennessee Athletics
Road Trip Rants: Queens and UNC
January 05, 2015 | Swimming & Diving
Early October on Interstate 40 through the borderlands of Tennessee and North Carolina offer up quite the stunning view. Lots of green amidst the forests of trees, speckled with touches of yellows, reds, and--of course--UT orange. It's foliage time in Tennessee and along the Appalachian Range and the backdrop is near perfect for the second road trip of the season and second venture into the Tar Heel State.
Unlike the first road trip to the beaches just outside of Wilmington on the Carolina coast, this bus ride (in a double-decker bus, no doubt!!!) is and feels a bit different. This is more of a business trip: no beach, no ocean, no surfing, no UT football bus, no extended weekend getaway.
We drive into Charlotte, then Chapel Hill. We swim (and eventually dive when the divers meet up with us). We leave for the next stop. We practice. We swim again. We compete. We get back on the bus. We leave. We arrive back in Knoxville not even a full day later in the middle of the night.
Queens University Thursday night, University of North Carolina Friday afternoon. Two meets, 48 hours. One win. One loss. One split road trip. One more cog in the wheel of a season....a grind of a season. If nothing else, this road trip has shown how much this team can grow, and this year isn't even one-third of the way done.
It seems to be that in the case of every loss, in every result really, there is a period of learning, of growth, of realization that for that one race, someone may have been a little bit faster. Sure, there isn't much swimming or diving experience writing this, but just from being around this team for almost two months now, it is apparent that this team wants it.
They want to win, no matter what it takes or whatever that implies. It's obvious when this team wins a race of any kind and it's obvious when this team loses a race of any kind. That competitive nature which drives every single athlete, coach and support staff member fuels the desire to win, to form a winning culture and to grind it all the way until the end.
What it means to grind out the remainder of this season will depend on each member collectively joining forces with everyone else and moving forward together, one step at a time, through the pain, the fatigue, or the increasing workload.
